Emily in Paris
Rome Has Fallen
Season 5
Episode 4
Editor’s Rating
The speed at which Emily has managed to ruin everything in Rome is awe-inspiring.
Photo: GIULIA PARMIGIANI/NETFLIX
Our show is zipping along here in Rome, and I want to point out that it does not feel incidental to that success that we are without Gabriel and Camille. Sorry, but they are a drag!
It’s time to launch Muratori Paradiso. Emily’s plan to invite a handful of influencers to Solitano for an exclusive launch party is a good one. Marcello’s question (“How is inviting TikTokers to our town and paying to entertain them going to sell perfume?”) and the tone in which he asks it reveal that he is a moron. How does he not know that that’s how it works? Also, why does he always talk like he is trying to seduce someone, even when he’s in a business meeting, sitting next to his mom? His voice reminds me of what Bec was always doing on You. Bedhead-voice, you know? A little tryhard. Anyway, Emily has to explain to Marcello how social media works, even though it is frankly impossible for me to believe that a man who has surely dated multiple model-influencers is unfamiliar with these basic concepts.
Sylvie is having a meltdown and has not shown her short film to anyone. As someone who was also recently in final edits on my most ambitious work to date (even more ambitious than these recaps, if you can believe it!), I find this incredibly relatable. “I’m under a lot of stress, and you banned smoking at the office!” made me laugh out loud. I love her! And I think the role-reversal of Sylvie spinning out while Emily is cool and collected is a very fun choice for the show. I was into Emily’s outfit until I saw the whole thing. I thought it was a dress at first, but it’s actually a shirt and pants with … is that a tail? Like a half-skirt apron thing sticking out of the back? Ugh, EMILY. You were so close!
At the hotel, Mindy is in one of the classic stages of the casual hook-up: denial. Lots of “this is the last time,” “this doesn’t mean anything,” and “you are the human equivalent of tourist braids.” This show’s commitment to taking a bad metaphor and just running it into the ground (see also: fake Fendi) is intensely irritating to me. I’m glad they’re getting the most out of this vacation, and I will state once more, for the record, that there is no reason they couldn’t just date each other if they wanted to. Mindy could resolve all of this with one normal conversation with Emily. I’m sure, instead, they will get found out in some humiliating and treacherous way, but it could so easily be otherwise!
Marcello plays the proud, supportive boyfriend, as if Emily has all the time in the world before this big event to look through symbolic keyholes with him. He cannot believe Emily convinced Antonia to do a marketing event in Solitano. He’s laying it on real thick. Hmm.
In Paris, everything is crumbling, and this cannot come as a surprise to anyone, given that the plan was for Luc and Julien to stay behind and run things, but they have been summoned to/wormed their way into the Rome office, which means Agence Grateau is under the management of the worst assistant in the world: Gen. The Parisian clients are all talking about how totally checked out Sylvie and Co. are. They’re basically in open revolt.
Sylvie is not dealing with this; Sylvie is in the editing room. The cigarettes are piling up. This is exactly what it looks like when I write these recaps. Her editor is so unsupportive. Where is Sylvie’s Thelma Schoonmaker? She caves and calls Giancarlo for help, only to find out the editor has been snitching via text and calling the ad terrible. But do we buy this?! I feel like Giancarlo is just being a prick, as apparently he is wont to do. Anyway, Sylvie fires him, adding she will never call him again.
Emily and Mindy have a slumber party and do placenta face masks. It’s very cute! Emily articulates the stakes of the episode for everyone who isn’t really watching but instead is mostly on their phone while this show plays in the background: If the Muratori campaign is successful, she might get to run the Rome office for good. She is proud of herself for not spiraling just because Sylvie is spiraling. Growth! Mindy awkwardly declines the opportunity to flirt at the event, which Emily would pick up on if she weren’t so caught up in her own work stuff. Also, I feel like none of them is really using the phrase “when in Rome” correctly. But they are certainly using it a lot!
Luc’s spot gets blown up when his houseboat girlfriend, the Michelin fraud Marianne, arrives to surprise him. Bianca busts them despite Luc’s best efforts. In a single lunch, Luc loses the Bavazza account, his Paris girlfriend, and his Rome girlfriend. See, this is sort of what I was alluding to re: the high stakes of all your clients being people your employees are dating.
Time for the big Solitano event! Emily’s hair and makeup are a little much for the day, but I guess it’s fine because the event really doesn’t get going until after dark? Those heels on those cobblestones, though … horrible idea. Sylvie is uncharacteristically distraught, and Emily seizes the moment to swipe Sylvie’s phone and send herself the link to Muratori’s film. Princess Jane, our high priestess of sponcon, is going live to hype “Collagen Forever.” Emily tells her that attendees cannot go live. Not even to reach Princess Jane’s stan army, her “royal subjects.” The only promo permitted is one post to the grid.
Darkness falls, and Emily tells the gathered guests how the Muratori workers eat lunch here every day. To Sylvie’s horror, the short film is screened. Everyone loves it. So by the end, Sylvie’s horror is not that the film is awful but that it is actually fantastic and has fuckin Giancarlo’s name on it, instead of hers. During the screening, Alfie and Mindy amble off to make out against a wall so that Emily can eventually find out about this fling in the worst way possible: Through Julien gossiping about it.
Giancarlo showed up after all, probably because he hoped Sylvie would be defeated; instead, he just takes credit for her work. They have an almost-gracious conversation about all of this: she apologizes like an adult, he is a dick at first, but then assures her that she is very talented and they could have “a partnership,” as if she would want to work with him again after seeing what he’s like the minute she disagrees with him!
Honestly, I do not love how this resolves. The gist of it is that Sylvie is actually a promising director — which was her dream all along! — but she rejects this, saying that what she really wants to do is go home to her husband. Oookay.
Antonia couldn’t be happier with Emily. Sylvie encourages Emily to become “so Italian” and tells her she will be getting what she aimed for: a run of the Rome office. Sylvie is going back to Paris. She needs to be somewhere she can smoke inside!
The next day, everyone is celebrating the success. Write-ups in Vogue and Tatler! Fragrance presales have exploded. “Make sure Antoine destroys all evidence that it was ever for babies,” Sylvie says, which in another show would feel like a Chekhovian one-liner, but here I think it’s just a joke for us and not a sign of explosive revelations to come. It’s all going well … too well, in fact. Marcello summons Emily to Solitano, which, thanks to the influencers’ posts, has overnight become overrun with obnoxious tourists.
This sequence is played like a thriller. Very funny. Emily is surrounded by the next generation of Emilys, and they are taking drone footage. The goats are in SHOCK. Antonia is LIVID. Emily, she says, has RUINED Solitano: “It was paradise and now it’s Disneyland!” This is exactly why she never wanted to do any marketing. Their beautiful sanctuary has been defiled, and Emily is fired.
To make matters worse, Marcello is quite calm about the whole thing because he got what he wanted all along: JVMA upped their offer. He’s been talking to them behind Emily’s back this whole time. “Of course,” he says blankly. “I never stop negotiating.” So much for “I’ve never lied to you and I never will”! He seems surprised that Emily is angry at him, and I wonder if he really did not realize that this had stakes for her because he is one of those breezy, uber-rich people for whom almost all things in life are stakesless. His “Emily” as she leaves is so weak!
Sylvie calls an emergency meeting. Emily sets Julien up with her whole “Rome wasn’t built in a day” line because obviously he’s going to say it only took her a day to destroy it. Sylvie is closing the Rome office because (and it pains me to say this, love her as I do!) she makes every business decision based on which man she finds attractive, and now that she’s over Giancarlo, she is ready to be back in Paris.
I’m sorry, but it is extremely funny that they came to Rome, what, six months ago? And managed to wrecking-ball the entire operation, plus piss off all their Paris clients (save for Antoine), and forever destroy the sanctity of Solitano. Can’t say they aren’t efficient! Sylvie is very kind to Emily who was so excited to run her own office. Said it before and I’ll say it again: The real love of Emily’s life is her job! She will be fine without Marcello, but is devastated by the loss of the Muratori account. Sylvie says it’s important to know when to cut your losses. Besides: “I need my Emily in Paris.”
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